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Momodou
Denmark
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 Posted - 04 Feb 2008 : 20:58:09
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International Roots Festival Media Campaign Launched
By Fabakary B. Ceesay
The 9th edition of the International Roots Festival Media Campaign was launched on Friday 1 February at the Paradise Suites Hotel.
During the previous festivals, the role that The Gambia media played in publicizing and sensitizing people about the event cannot be over-emphasized. The media has undoubtedly remained an important partner of the International Roots Festival since its inception in line with its desire to consolidate this worthwhile partnership and the efforts to develop this Pan African event.
This years Roots Festival encourages a wider participation of the Gambian population who are encouraged to dress in traditional Gambian attire throughout the duration of the festival. This will help showcase our beautiful traditional dresses while at the same time providing the international guests with a better understanding and appreciation of Gambian culture. To give the festival a wider African flavour, other African nationals residing in The Gambia have been invited to participate and showcase their culture.
A national coordinating committee, appointed by the Secretary of State for Tourisn and Culture, has since August, 2007, been working behind the scenes to plan and implement the festival programme which features boat trips to Juffureh, James Island and Janjangbureh, as well as an initiation ceremony in Kanilai, among others.
During the week long festival, there will also be a showcasing of Gambian traditional performances, as well as an investment fora and educational discussions. The occasion will also create a platform for Africans in the Sub-region and those from the diaspora to share and learn from each other. Visitors are expected from the UK, USA and the Caribbean.
The International Roots Festival, conceived in 1996 by the government, is a biennial event organized by the Department of State for Tourism and Culture, in collaboration with the National Centre for Arts and Culture and Gambia Tourism Authority. The festival mainly funded by the government with public and private partnership, is a commemoration of the forced enslavement of millions of Africans to the Americas and the Caribbean during the 17th and 18th centuries. It is intended to serve as a bridge building initiative between Africans on the continent and all people of African descent worldwide. It also serves as a moment to celebrate our rich, diverse and yet homogenous cultural heritage, which augurs well for the promotion of The Gambia’s cultural tourism.
The festivals inspiration is drawn from Alex Haley’s famous book, Roots, which is the story of how he traced his 8th generation ancestry to a slave caught in the village of Juffereh and forcibly transported to America to be sold as a slave. Research shows that over 243,000 were forcefully transported from the Senegambia region by registered trans atlantic slave ships between 1646 and 1850s. Consequently The Gambia is home to millions of Africans in the diaspora through their ancestral umbilical cord.
The SoS for Tourism, Angela Colley, said that as the festival grows and the infrastructure gets more developed, they would want to decentralize it, moving it away from Banjul, and Kanifing municipality into the hinterland, where guests would have the real Gambian experience.
SoS Colley said that the organizing committee of the festival thought it fitting to do the launching with their esteemed selected partners. She noted that their first partners are indeed the media. The SoS added that the 2008 partners are people and institutions that have been carefully selected. “These are indeed very important people and institutions that matter in Gambian society.”
The Chairman of Marketing and Publicity Sub-Committee, Mr. Ebou Waggeh, during a press conference, said that the media will have access to information as regards the festival. He further said that the participation of the Gambian media lagged behind in previous festivals compared to international media coverage of the event. He indicated that this time around the local media would be transported along with the international media to cover all the programmes.
He emphasized that the local media is a priority in this year’s event which is the reason that prompted this launch of the media campaign.
Source: Foroyaa Newspaper Burning Issue
Issue No. 15/2008, 4 - 5 February 2008
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